The Finance Ministry will take steps to increase the transparency of its inspections and administration of financial firms to redeem itself amid the bribery scandal in which it is currently embroiled, Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga said Monday before the Diet.
In a speech on the nation's financial affairs, Matsunaga apologized for the arrest of two ministry banking inspectors for allegedly receiving bribes from banks, and promised that measures will be taken to restore public trust in the ministry.
An in-house probe of ministry staffers is currently under way to check for excessively close ties with financial firms, and the inspection process itself will be reformed, Matsunaga said.